A proud unapologetic Black trans woman speaking truth to power and discussing the world around her since 2006

Thursday, June 15, 2017

World War T Is a Protracted Battle, Not A Conservative Political Blitzkrieg

In the wake of the Obergefell v Hodges ruling the conservative movement lost in 2015, that was the moment they decided to shift tactics and commit to politically attacking the transgender community.

On the surface, we looked like an easy target. We don't have large well funded national or statewide political organizations. We're an estimated 5% of the US population at best. We have people in the lesbian and gay ranks of the community who have been documented engaging in hating on and repeatedly throwing us under the political bus since the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion we kicked off.

We aren't as well known to the general public as our lesbian and gay counterparts even though we've always been here and part of the diverse mosaic of human life. Our media coverage comes in bursts.

So when the Right Wing started the World War T attacks on trans people in their media, in their conservative 'religious' ranks, and eventually the Republican Party legislative win with the aid of our longtime enemies in the TERF movement, they thought they were going to roll to a conservative blitzkrieg, then move back to attacking the then Black POTUS and focusing their efforts back on their longtime enemies in the LGB community.

It isn't turning out as easy as they thought.
If the GOP thought we trans folks would just roll over and cry in the corner as they trampled on our human rights, they were sadly mistaken.What they are finding out is that we are a far more formidable opponent than they assumed we'd be.

When you have had to for decades fight tooth and nail, scrap, claw and rumble every day just to have your humanity, human rights and your life respected, you're not just going to roll over and meekly whimper in the corner as the Right Wing Noise Machine rolls into action to take away our human rights

You're going to fight them with every fiber of your being.

And we weren't alone. We have allies and some pretty potent ones. There's the bi community, that knows firsthand what it's like to be marginalized and erased themselves. There are lesbian and gay peeps who get it that we are stronger together when we fight the conservative oppressors.

There are cis women who get it that trans women are women, and realize that some of our issues are their issues, and welcome our help in tackling the issues of importance to them. There are cis men who get it that trans men are men, and are forging those needed and necessary ties of brotherhood.

There are politicians who recognize that trans rights are international human rights, and are increasingly moving in various nations, as Canada will emphatically demonstrate today, to help pass human rights legislation and policies that protect our human rights and allow us to be the persons we are.

The best ones we've gained so far are the Mama and Papa Bears, the parents of trans kids. When you peeps started attacking their kids, you brought them into the fight.

You also got peeps who were sitting on the fence on our side because you made the tactical mistake of attacking kids, and it made you transphobic conservafools look like the mean bullies you are

We have also seen the timely and much needed increase of trans masculine leadership, and especially the rise of trans masculine and trans feminine leaders of color. We've also seen an increase in progressive church folk willing to step into this fight and say no to their loud and wrong conservative brethren cherry picking scripture to Bible beat people.

We've also seen an increase of trans characters in popular culture. We do need more diversity in those characters including more trans masculine ones. We need diversity in the stories being told beyond the 'tragic transsexual' meme, an end to cis men playing trans women and giving roles that call for trans women to trans women first.

But the overall trend line from Hollywood is positive.

We are and continue to tell our beautifully human stories whether in written form via books and blogs or in video blogs and documentaries..

We've been fighting for our human rights in the modern era for decades and are a lot more politically savvy than the right wing assumes we are. Ask the lesbian and gay peeps still mad because we backed a skinny Black Illinois state senator with a funny name in the 2008 Democratic primary and then raised $10K for his ultimately successful run to the presidency.

Ask the now former Republican SC state senator who tried to pass anti-trans legislation that was beaten in large part to our trans kids leading the charge

We have also seen an increase in trans people willing to run for public office. We have been pleased to see in other parts of the world trans people win election to their national legislatures as Geraldine Roman did last year in the Philippines.

We have more trans folks running for public office at their city, state and federal level because frankly, we needed to.

And the number of people who state that they are friends with, know or have a trans person in their families is growing.

Like any war, we're going to lose people. We're going to win some battles and lose some. But the wonderful thing to note here is that World War T isn't a conservative political blitzkrieg.

This is a war the conservative movement started against trans people that is not only going to be a protracted struggle, but in the end one we transpeople win because we have the moral high ground and are determined to do so.

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About The TransGriot

Monica Roberts, AKA the TransGriot (Gree-oh) is a native Houstonian, GLAAD award nominated blogger, writer, and award winning trans human rights advocate. She's the founding editor of TransGriot, and her writing has appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate.
She works to foster understanding and acceptance of trans people inside and outside communities of color and was recently honored with the Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award

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The TransGriot blog's mission is to become the griot of our community. I will introduce you to and talk about your African descended trans brothers and trans sisters across the Diaspora, reclaim and document our chocolate flavored trans history, speak truth to power, comment on the things that impact our trans community from an Afrocentric perspective and enlighten you about the general things that go on around me and in the communities that I am a member of.

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